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[taura-wildes]

Not For Polite Society & Other Short Stories by Elle Stockton

“The black sheep was turning into a lighter shade of grey. He seemed happier for it.”

The five short stories in this book are endearing with a dark twist. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the dialogue and descriptions throughout each story and found this made it easier to fully immerse myself in the narratives.

The titled story, ‘Not For Polite Society’, is by far my favourite. For me, it had quite an olden-days feel to it, despite the use of text messages, with character interactions sometimes reminding me of those in ‘The Great Gatsby’ . Elle’s ending story, ‘A Particular Taste: It Begins’, is definitely the darkest out of the bunch, depicting a stark contrast between a young sister’s tenderness and her sickening curiosity.

I love the irony of how polite the protagonists of each story are despite their unsociable oddness and twisted psyches, making the title for this collection perfect. Elle shows a talent for providing readers with engrossing snippets of her character’s lives, which makes for a quick but interesting read.

I don’t want to give away any details of the stories as I believe it is best to delve straight into this collection and meet the characters for the first time within the book’s pages.

Thank you so much to Elle Stockton for letting me read and review this book! I may not have found it otherwise and I am so grateful to have read it!

Elle Stockton is also the author of ‘Bourbon Street Nocturne and Other Short Stories’ and ‘Harvest Moon Wish and Other Short Stories’ which I will now be adding to my never ending TBR pile!

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